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The “Age of the Cathedral” of Šibenik. The Contribution of the Denizens of the Late Medieval Šibenik Commune to the Construction of the St. James Cathedral
Zoran Ladić
; Odsjek za povijesne znanosti Zavoda za povijesne i društvene znanosti HAZU
Sažetak
Late medieval written sources of different provenience provide very precious data on the participation of the denizens of the late medieval Šibenik commune in the construction of the St. James Cathedral. In the article both published and unpublished sources are used, in the first place the deeds of three notaries (Pietrobono Pagano, Peter, son of the late John, and Karatus Vitale) from the period between the 1430s and the end of the 1450s, the correspondence of the counts and bishops of Šibenik, ducali, and the communal statute. It is precisely these latter sources that are important for an understanding of the mechanisms of propaganda used by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities in order to create a positive attitude among the population towards the cathedral as a religious symbol of the commune and bishopric, but also as a representative symbol of urbanity aimed at the elevation of the self-consciousness of the denizens of the commune to the new level.
However, the “age of the cathedral” in the history of Šibenik may be perhaps best illustrated by the data from the testaments of the urban nobility, citizens, inhabitants of the city district and foreigners. In the article 219 such notarial documents were consulted, in order to find those data regarding the giving of the bequests in fabrica ecclesie cathedralis sancti Iacobi. As is demonstrated in the article, 128 of these testaments mention bequests aimed at the support of the construction of the cathedral. The majority of bequests were given in money, and members of all the estates donated 607.41 ducats in total for that purpose. It should be taken into consideration that all these bequests are taken from the analysis of last wills written down by only two notaries (Pietrobono Pagano and Karotus Vitale) and in two rather short periods (Pagano from November 1436 to January 1437 and Vitale from September 1451 to July 1457), and a more comprehensive picture may be drawn only on the basis of the analysis of all testaments written down by all the notaries operating in Šibenik at the same time. According to the data received from the sample, the greatest sums of money were donated by the testators from the elite communal layers – the urban noblemen – followed by the citizens, while the smallest of the bequests in money were given by the peasants from the district and by foreigners. Such proportions clearly show the real material and financial relations within the Šibenik commune of the late Middle Ages, where the greatest financial power was held by the city nobility, with citizens slowly approaching this level. Peasants of the district, who demonstrated a pronounced solidarity with the idea of the construction of the cathedral, also donated money, but the sums were usually rather small, in accordance with their financial possibilities. Even though a great number of foreigners lived in Šibenik at that time, only seven of them donated monetary bequests for the construction of the cathedral of Šibenik, a proportion that was in accordance with general European trends of the time.
It may be concluded that the St. James cathedral of Šibenik could hardly have been built without contributions that were voluntary, but also regulated and encouraged from the side of the city authorities, of the testators of both genders and of all communal social layers. They facilitated the purchase of wooden, stone and other materials, and the paying of masters and workers. Taking into account the fact that in Šibenik, in contrast to some other European cities in the period from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, in which as the patrons of the cathedral construction emperors, kings, magnates, archbishops and other influential and rich people were listed, there was no patron capable of financing and supervising the construction of the cathedral by himself alone, the building of the cathedral could be seen as an act of devotion, and the cathedral as a sacral architectonic work of art created as a result of the financial and material efforts of all the denizens of the Šibenik commune.
Ključne riječi
Šibenik; cultural history; the Late Middle Ages; history of piety; social history
Hrčak ID:
121318
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.12.2013.
Posjeta: 1.876 *